Department of Defense Seeks American Foundries for Cutting Edge Process Nodes

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Policy makers at the Department of Defense (DoD) are concerned with the current American landscape of innovative DMEA-accredited Trusted Foundries partners. The US government would prefer that sensitive chips for military applications be created here in America. IBM was entrusted to perform these tasks, but sold their chip business to GlobalFoundries in 2015. With the recent announcement that GlobalFoundries has exited the 7nm race, the DoD is scrambling to come up with a plan to secure cutting edge process node manufacturers that are accredited suppliers. There is a plan to use other sources such as TSMC and Taiwan for the physical FPGA manufacturing, and then program the chips here, but again it is highly preferred that the foundry creating the chips be located on American soil.

So the DoD is developing new methods to ensure trust in all fabs. Among them: New supply chain methods. New design, fabrication and packaging techniques, including chiplets. Use of split fabs, where the transistor-level portion of a device is built in one fab and the metallization is done in a trusted facility. For this, the DoD is building its own fab for mature nodes. It's a complicated situation. To help the industry get ahead of the curve, Semiconductor Engineering has taken a look at mil-aero chip trends, the Trusted Foundry program, and the DoD's strategy.
 
The article is a really good read if you're interested in how government contracts and technology intertwine.
 
Maybe GF will eventually go 10nm or below. Just not push it while it's still bleeding edge?
 
all TSMC would need to do is turn wafertech in Washington back into a US based subsidiary and boom easy DoD contract.
 
cageymaru said:
The article is a really good read if you're interested in how government contracts and technology intertwine.
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My last job used to build for the navy on contract. Was always intimidating because they wanted the full name and signature of the person who actually built the products signed on each paper tied to a serial number.
 
With glofo dropping out, they literally have no options, other than to compromise.

Glofo makes all its money on mass production of older process nodes. Most of what they do is custom, where yield is of the utmost importance.
 
not sure why the need to be on american soil. Any plant, anywhere can be made secure or compromised.
 
pek said:
What happened to DARPA?
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DARPA does research work not production
Sulphademus said:
Maybe GF will eventually go 10nm or below. Just not push it while it's still bleeding edge?
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Why the rush to 7mm with the DOD when other processes can do the same thing? Most DOD projects are 5 years behind the latest and greatest.

Darunion said:
My last job used to build for the navy on contract. Was always intimidating because they wanted the full name and signature of the person who actually built the products signed on each paper tied to a serial number.
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What did you guys make? I worked in a facity and we made stuff for the DOD and that was never a requirement-and I was a Facitity Security Officer that had to deal with the Goverment/DOD with this stuff.

katanaD said:
not sure why the need to be on american soil. Any plant, anywhere can be made secure or compromised.
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Its a hell of a lot less likely to happen on US soil then overseas. Insider threat is greater and easier to do overseas.
 
GT98 said:
What did you guys make? I worked in a facity and we made stuff for the DOD and that was never a requirement-and I was a Facitity Security Officer that had to deal with the Goverment/DOD with this stuff.
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Inductive sensors that were rated to be in 1500 psi environments. Not sure what specifically they were used for, was told something with submarines. Could be been a hatch door sensor or toilet lid sensor i dunno.
 
Darunion said:
Inductive sensors that were rated to be in 1500 psi environments. Not sure what specifically they were used for, was told something with submarines. Could be been a hatch door sensor or toilet lid sensor i dunno.
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Ok that makes sense-the Navy has a program called SUBSAFE it started after the USS Thresher sunk with all hands back in the 1960s that improved QC on building subs-that would apply in that case.
 
Elios said:
good luck with that DoD
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Do you have any idea how good they are with things like this?

For instance, a good many years ago the Army wanted to combine all their multiple domains and email exchange systems into a single homogeneous entity. Microsoft told them it was impossible and that you could create an exchange or forests that large.

Guess what the Army made happen?

The US Army built the largest single AD Domain and Exchange email system in the entire world. (Can't say that it remains the largest today).

It's not hard, not if you are willing to pay for the talent to make things happen.
 
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GT98 said:
Ok that makes sense-the Navy has a program called SUBSAFE it started after the USS Thresher sunk with all hands back in the 1960s that improved QC on building subs-that would apply in that case.
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Interesting, thanks for that info!
 
I was gonna suggest Intel but article states they aren't part of the DoD program. Unless they can get Intel onboard the program, I think the U.S Government should buy out GF. Yeah its expensive, but China is investing so much money into their foundry business, the U.S should respond accordingly.
 
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